Lunacy
by DeathlyFlames
Summary: Dib wasn't crazy. He knew he wasn't. He had a father, a sister, classmates, Zim. So why is he in this lab? And why does this man keep saying that everything that Dib has ever known has just been a fabrication of his own mind?


**Author's Note: Ok, so this is a rough start to a story. I have a plot idea behind it, but I don't know if I should continue. Let me know if you think it's worth continuing. **

**~DeathlyFlames**

**BETA: Meggii of Mysteri OusStranger - .net/u/1054584/**

**EDIT::: I now have this Beta'd, so at least the majority of grammatical errors have been resolved. Enjoy!**

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><p>Dib tapped his pencil on his desk in irritation. Class seemed to drag on endlessly, one period blending into the next. His whole world had become smudged paint on a canvas: a blur. School had become so trivial compared to his relentless hunt to expose Zim. He spent minimal time on homework in-between foiling Zim's evil schemes. His grades had suffered, but the C's didn't hurt him like they did before Zim came. He had become devoted to the task of exposing the alien menace.<p>

Speaking of inferiority, the alien hadn't show up for class. This made Dib nervous. He looked at the empty seat and narrowed his eyes. His tapping became progressively faster and more aggressive. He _knew_ Zim was up to something, he just knew it! That stupid, green boy was only absent when he had something big planned. Dib knew he was going to sprint to Zim's house and battle him once again for Earth.

Dib cursed the clock with all his might. It didn't go fast enough. He stared at it, fury flaming from his eyes. He urged time to move faster, hoping the power of his mind could alter reality. The five minutes moved like an eternity, but as soon as the bell sounded, Dib was the first out of the room. He had to go find Zim and stop his evil plan before he took over Earth.

It didn't take long for him to find Zim. The alien was walking down the street with his robot. Dib ran to him and poked Zim in the chest.

"What are you planning now, Zim?" Dib spat out the last word with disgust. Stupid alien scum. He couldn't trust him.

"What makes you think I'm planning anything, Dib-stink?" Zim scoffed.

Dib narrowed his eyes. "Because you are always planning your evil schemes! Every time I turn my back it's like I'll find you doing stuff!"

"Stuff? Zim? Never! Zim does not do stuff! Puny human, Zim is normal! Normal!" Zim shouted, overemphasizing his name.

Dib hated it when he did that. "Zim, doing stuff _is_ normal."

Zim considered this momentarily before responding. "Of course I do stuff! _Professor, Subject 492 is becoming unstable._ What kind of thing is that to ask the mighty Zim?" Zim looked triumphantly at his enemy, who just looked dumbfounded. What had Zim just…?

"Zim. What did you just say?

"I think you need to get your pathetic human ears checked, Dib-beast. Zim said that _should we initiate wakeup sequence?_"

Zim did it again. It was almost like Zim wasn't the one talking. Halfway through his sentence it seemed like Zim was in a completely different conversation. It didn't make sense. Dib didn't know what he should do, so he just turned and walked home, leaving a confused Zim in the street.

Zim just laughed. "Pathetic human! Zim's superior conversational skills are too much for your puny worm-baby mind to comprehend!"

Dib didn't respond. Maybe he wasn't getting enough sleep.

That night, Dib didn't dream. He woke from a blissful sleep to stare directly into a metal ceiling. He bolted upright, hitting his head on a lamp. A man ran over to him and pushed him back to the table. Dib fought, pushing against the restraining hands, only to fail. More men came and strapped his wrists and neck to the table. Dib began to hyperventilate.

"Who are you? Why am I here?"

The men looked like the assistants that his father had in his lab. They didn't answer him, they simply returned to their duties. Dib screamed and shouted and struggled until one tech came over and injected him with something. It wasn't more than a few seconds before Dib fell asleep once more.

When Dib awoke, he expected his bed, his closet and desk, and everything else he normally saw. Unfortunately, when he awoke this time, Dib saw metal bars and the memory came flooding back. He was kidnapped. He must have been. He sat up, holding his head as he did. Pain wracked his body and his head felt like it was going to explode. He blinked his eyes a couple of times and crawled to the bars, looking out past them. It was dark except for a single light in the ceiling. He couldn't see much, but he could see that he was in a hallway filled with cells on both sides. He couldn't tell how many, though.

Dib panicked, he gripped the bars in his fists and shook as hard as he could. He shouted until his voice was hoarse, and when no one came he stopped shaking. He leaned against the wall and waited.

It wasn't long before someone came with food.

"Hey, come over here and get your food." Dib looked up and saw a man holding a plate up to a small section in the door that didn't have bars. It wasn't large enough to escape or to stick a hand through, just big enough for the small plate. Dib stood up and walked over to him, but didn't grab the plate.

"Where am I? Who are you?" Dib asked.

The tech sighed. "Just take the food."

"Not until I get answers." Dib felt his determination returning and crossed his arms defiantly.

"I can't tell you anything. The Professor will explain everything when he arrives." Dib sighed and grabbed the plate.

There was no point in grilling the tech when the Professor probably knew more anyway. Besides, his stomach was grumbling and he didn't remember how long it had been since he had last eaten. He returned to the spot he had been sitting in and looked at his plate. It was a simple – potatoes and a small hamburger, but Dib was starving. Before he could eat more than one bite of potato, however, he heard footsteps down the hall. He stopped and listened. The steps got closer and closer before Dib saw a faint outline of a man a couple cells from him. Dib stood, leaving his food on the floor and approached the bars. The man came up to him and towered over him. His face was shadowed, and Dib couldn't tell much about him other than he wore a white lab coat and a very dark pair of goggles, much like what his father wore.

"Subject 492. I am Professor Jones."

Dib was ecstatic. Maybe now he could get an explanation. "Why am I here and who are you people?" The Professor crossed his hands behind his back.

"You are an experiment for the BrainWorks laboratories. You are one of our first experiments in human cloning and have been selected for awakening and testing."

Dib's heart sank. Confusion set in, and Dib became frantic.

"Cloning? Experiment? Who are you really and where is my dad?"

"Your father? You don't have a father."

"Yes I do! Professor Membrane, you must have heard of him! He's really famous!"

"You don't have a father. You are simply a configurations of cells bred and raised in a tube until you have reached mental maturity. Now that you have reached that stage you are ready to begin testing."

Dib felt a chill down his back. It couldn't be. He must be lying. "But, I have a family! My father, my sister Gaz, and I have school and Zim…" Zim.

"Hmm…interesting." The Professor said nothing after that, he simply left, writing something on a clipboard as he did.

Zim must be behind this. If not, that would mean that Dib was crazy. If he was an experiment who had lived his whole life in a lab that means that he had imagined everything about his life.

Dib knew he wasn't crazy.


End file.
